The 1989–90 Philadelphia Flyers season was the Philadelphia Flyers 23rd season in the National Hockey League (NHL). The 1989–90 season got off to a bad start for the Flyers, and continued to get worse. Ron Hextall missed all but eight games due to suspension, contract holdout issues and injury, the suspension given for attacking Chris Chelios at the end of the Montreal playoff series the previous spring. Paul Holmgren replaced Dave Poulin as captain in December with Ron Sutter, which led to Poulin's (and later that season, Brian Propp's) trade to Boston. As a result, the Flyers missed the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 1972. Bob Clarke, having been with the Flyers organization since he was drafted in 1969, was fired and replaced as GM by Russ Farwell.